Contents of the RN-DR.DOC file

Version 2.6 of RN-DR.ARC 7-11-88

ORIGINAL DR.COM --------------- "Our best free utility ever" was how PC Magazine described Michael Mefford's DR.COM program. It was published in the August, 1987 (Volume 6, Number 14) issue. DR will list the files in a directory sorted by time, date, filename, file extension, or original DOS order. If the list includes more than 21 filenames, you can scroll through them using the cursor keys.

Once the files are listed, DR will rename, move, delete, or list any selected file. You select a file by moving a 'bouncing bar' (inverse video filename display) with the cursor keys. A file can also be selected by typing the first character of the file's name. The first time an 'A' is typed, for example, the bar moves to the first filename that begins with the letter 'A'. Successively pressing the 'A' key will take you forward through all the filenames that begin with the letter 'A'. When the last file starting with 'A' has been reached, DR will beep at you when you press the 'A' key.

ORIGINAL RN.COM --------------- Two issues later, PC Magazine published Mr. Mefford's companion program RN.COM. RN is a directory manager in the same sense that DR is a file manager. RN displays your hard disk directories in a tree list, sorted alphabetically. The 'bouncing bar' technique seen in DR is used to make selections, only this time you are selecting directories. Again, you can use the cursor keys or 'first letter' Search to make your selections.

RN lets you rename, create, and delete directories. You can also change the file attributes of all files in a particular directory. By calling up RN with a '/I' option, RN's directory information is kept resident in memory, making invocation almost immediate.

The nicest feature of RN is that you can highlight a directory name and then by pressing the Return key (or F10), call DR to list the files in that directory. Together, the utilities make a GREAT directory management tool.

ORIGINAL CO.COM ---------------

Mr. Mefford's final program in the trilogy was CO.COM, published in Volume 6, Number 21. Like DR, it gives you a listing of the files contained in a directory and allows you to vary their displayed sort order. New in CO was the ability to mark several files and copy them in one operation to another directory or drive. Since CO did not have all the abilities of DR (e.g. rename and view), it functioned more as a powerful cousin. Together, the three utilities made a very effective hard drive file/directory manager. And even better yet, the cost of the three utilities was $0.00. Hats off to PC Magazine and Mr. Mefford!

RN-DR.DOC Page 2

MODIFICATIONS ------------- The original programs worked with both monochrome and color systems. When discussing these utilities, the term 'monochrome' refers to true MDA systems as well as to systems using a single-color monitor with RGB capabilities -e.g. Compaq portables and laptop LCD's. In the original versions, the screen attributes were simply reversed to produce the highlighting 'bouncing bar'. On my color system (I use bright green on black for text entry), the filename in the highlighted area was difficult to read. I found that using a red bar with bright white letters made it much easier to read the filenames. The files RN16_C.COM, DR26_C.COM, and CO16_C.COM will display the red bar on color-equipped systems (the section "Using DEBUG to Modify the Utilities" describes changing the highlight bar color). For single-color systems, Mr. Mefford's original attribute handling works best; use the programs RN16_M.COM, DR24_M.COM, and CO16_M.COM.

*** NOTE *** Before using the utilities, please refer to the section "Installing the Utilities."

After getting used to the power and speed of Vernon Beurg's LIST program, I was disappointed with the scrolling speed of DR's built-in View feature. Being a born tinkerer and hacker, I modified DR so that it ran a copy of COMMAND.COM and called LIST.COM to list the highlighted file.

Once that feature was working, I found myself using RN/DR often to clean up my hard disk, getting rid of unwanted files. Because I tend to archive a lot of my files, it seemed like every time I used RN/DR, I was dropping back to DOS so that I could run PKARC or PKXARC. Clearly what was needed was a way to call PKARC and PKXARC without dropping back to DOS.

After making the call to LIST.COM work, it turned out to be fairly easy to modify DR once more, adding calls to PKARC and PKXARC. You can list all the files in an archive by pressing F6. To unARC all the files in a selected archive, press F5.

In response to requests from users for some of the commands and features available in CO.COM, I've added a command to RN to call CO.COM. New in version 2.6 is the added ability to call CO from DR. Now CO can be called from either RN or DR. When called from RN, CO will list the highlighted directory. When called from DR, CO will show you the same files you saw in DR.

RN-DR.DOC Page 3

Also new in version 2.6 is the ability to run a program from within DR. To run any program in the directory, simply highlight the program and press F1 or Ctrl-P. DR will prompt you to enter up to 35 characters as command line parameters for the program you want to run (just press Return if you don't want any parameters). Thanks to Bob Strobach (via CIS) for the 'Run program' suggestion.

Due to several conflicting requests for changes to the default file sorting order used by both DR and CO, I have gone back to the original method used by Mr. Mefford. Both DR and CO will present the file list sorted by filename as the default when run as stand-alone programs. If called by RN, both present the files in the original DOS order (they can then be sorted using a different method by pressing the proper function key). See the section "Using Debug to Modify the Utilities" for instructions on changing the sort order of DR and CO when called from RN or DR.

With version 1.3 of CO, laptop users (those that have laptops missing the grey + and - keys) can now mark and unmark files using the Shifted = and - keys. Thanks goes to Jon Payne (again via CIS) for bringing this problem to my attention.

INSTALLING THE UTILITIES ------------------------

As mentioned above, there are two versions of each utility. The color versions are named RN16_C.COM, DR26_C.COM, and CO13_C.COM. The monochrome versions are RN16_M.COM, DR26_M.COM, and CO13_M.COM. Before using the utilities, each program must be renamed. Use the following chart to rename them:

Vern Buerg's LIST.COM is required to use the List File feature of DR. Phil Katz's PKXARC.EXE (version 3.6 is .EXE, earlier versions are .COM) is required for the eXtract and Verbose file list features of DR. Version 2.6 of DR only uses PKXARC - PKARC is no longer required.

All the files (RN.COM, DR.COM, CO.COM, LIST.COM, and PKXARC.EXE) must reside in either the current directory or a PATH'ed directory. See your DOS manual for more information on PATHs, if necessary (or drop me a message on Compuserve).

RN-DR.DOC Page 4

USING DEBUG TO MODIFY THE UTILITIES -----------------------------------

The color of the highlighting bar can be changed, if desired, in the color versions of the utilities. The address of the highlight bar's color attribute for each program is listed in Table 1. Remember, color attributes are a bit map - it looks like:

DR's sort order when called from RN can be modified using DEBUG. The default for each is '/O', or original DOS order (tailored to those persons like myself who use Norton's DS to sort their directories). Table 2 shows the possible values at the sort order location for the various sorts. Table 3 shows the DEBUG locations required to change the sort order for DR from either RN16_C.COM or RN16_M.COM.

CO's sort order when called from RN and DR can also be modified. Table 4 shows the DEBUG locations required to change the sort order for CO from RN16_C.COM, RN16_M.COM, DR26_C.COM, and DR26_M.COM. The sort order values from Table 2 again apply.

As an example, let's show a typical DEBUG session in which we will change the highlight bar color in RN16_C.COM to bright Red on Blue and the sort order for both DR and CO to File Size (when called from RN16_C.COM). With DEBUG.COM and a COPY of RN16_C.COM in the current directory, type:

The 'xxxx' shown will be an address location that changes from computer to computer.

RN-DR.DOC Page 6

NOTES FOR FLOPPY-BASED SYSTEMS ------------------------------

To make things easier for users of hard-drive systems, RN and DR use COMMAND.COM's PATH search to find LIST, PKXARC, and DR itself. This requires a temporary reload of COMMAND.COM. If COMMAND.COM cannot be found, you will get a 'Bad command or filename' error message. This will occur if you remove the disk you booted from and replace it with a disk that does not contain a copy of COMMAND.COM.

Jon Payne suggested a solution. Create a RAM disk drive, copy RN, DR, CO, PKXARC, and COMMAND.COM to it. Then change the DOS COMSPEC to point to the RAM drive. Use the command:

"SET COMSPEC=d:\COMMAND.COM" (d: is the RAM drive letter)

You should also change the DOS PATH to include the RAM drive. An example would be:

"SET PATH=A:;B:;d:" (d: is the RAM drive letter)

GENERAL NOTES -------------

Ziff-Davis and Michael Mefford retain the copyrights to the original source code for RN, DR and CO. The author releases his modifications to the public domain.

If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to leave me a message via FIDO mail at Net 120, Node 27 (Bill Deblase's OPUS BBS, Grand Rapids, MI) or on Compuserve (PCMagNet's UTILFOR SIG), ID 71620,1035. Future modifications to RN-DR will be a direct result of user feedback. The source code to all the utilities is now available on PCMagNet's UTILFOR SIG, under the filename RNDR26.SRC. If anyone would like the source on a disk, send me a disk (either 3.5 or 5.25) and a SASE to:

Brad Stephenson 670 Edgeworth Jenison, MI 49428

Special thanks goes out to Bob Strobach (alias 'guinea pig') for his excellent suggestions and feedback.

A complete list of modifications to RN, DR and CO appears at the end of this document.

The following is a command list for each program. For a complete description of the original programs, see the PC Magazine Volume 6, Numbers 14, 16 and 21.

1. Changed default file sort order to /O (DOS original order) - now matches file order seen when DR is spawned from RN. 2. Added support for VERSION.EXE (internal utility used by Diebold, Incorporated for source & object modification tracking).

MODIFICATIONS TO DR.COM (Continued)

VERSION 2.3 - 3/29/88

1. Found and corrected intermittent hang problem when returning from PKXARC and/or PKARC (thanks goes out to Bob Strobach, Lewis Pager and Joe Macaluso for their detailed problem reports via CompuServe!). 2. Changed default sort order back to Name.